1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to nut hulling apparatus and in particular to cover mounted agitating fingers for a rotating tub for removing the hulls of nuts.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A normal tube pistachio peeler resembles the inside of a washer, only the tub is much bigger. That is, the tub is round in shape and spins clockwise. Furthermore, the walls of the tub are lined with angled strips of metal that knock the hulls off the pistachios. Before the pistachios ate fed into the tub, they are stored in the stainless steel container located at the top of tub. Once the pistachios are fed into the tub, they are spun around until the hulls are knocked off by the grid lining the tub walls. The process usually takes about 95 seconds.
Pistachio nuts have a hard shell around the edible kernel and a pericarp or hull which encases the shell. The hulling of pistachios is difficult and presents some unusual problems. The hulls of pistachios are stronger, more tenaciously adherent to the shells, and more difficult to remove than the hulls of many nuts, particularly if the pistachio is not yet ripe. If the hull is not promptly removed from pistachios after harvest, it discolors the shells requiring that the normally attractive straw colored shells be colored to hide undesirable stains. For this reason, most commercial pistachios are dyed an unnatural and undesirable pink or red color to obscure the stains. Even when abundant hand labor is available, it is usually not feasible to hull sufficiently large volumes of pistachios soon enough after harvest to avoid shell discoloration. As a result, mechanical hullers of various configurations have been developed.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,805, issued Mar. 20, 1979 to Cacho, provides a nut huller and/or sheller comprising, in combination, a container with its long axis vertical, a rotatable shaft concentrically mounted within said container, a plurality of radially extending blades mounted on said shaft to form a rotor assembly. The blades being divided into an upper group attached to an upper portion of said shaft in a helix of one direction and a lower group attached to a lower portion of said shaft in a helix of the opposite direction, a means for journaling said shaft in said container, and a means for rotating said rotor assembly.
Prior art U.S. patent application Ser. No. 20020166464, issued Nov. 14, 2002 to Warmack, shows a nutcracker apparatus that will successfully and efficiency crack nuts and separate the meat from the shell. To enable successful cracking the present invention comprises a housing having an inlet and outlet. Interiorly located in the housing is a rotatable horizontally disposed drum. A shaft having a plurality of paddles extends centrally through the drum. Secured to the wall of the drum is a plurality of removable screens. Nuts are feed to the inlet into the rotatable drum. During rotation, the paddles impart a force on the nuts causing them to crack and having the shells dislodge from the meat. The screens enable the appropriately sized meat to fall therethrough.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,665, issued Jul. 12, 1977 to McFarland, claims a pistachio huller having two stages; a first stage including a pair of rollers between which the pistachios are passed to rupture the pericarps thereof to form tag ends of pericarps adherent to the shells of the pistachios and a second stage including a plurality of parallel fine rollers closely spaced to preclude the passage of pistachios therebetween with the adjacent fine rollers alternately and oppositely oscillated to strip the tag ends of pericarps from the pistachios.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,137, issued Jul. 23, 2002 to Nakhei-Nejad, describes an apparatus for separating hulled and unhulled pistachios includes a rotating roller and a conveyor for depositing pistachios onto the roller. Rotation of the drum frictionally separates hulled and unhulled pistachios.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,799, issued Jan. 4, 2000 to Lemos, discloses a system for splitting pistachios including an adjustable splitter assembly including plungers driven by cams. The cams are frictionally slidable on a rotating camshaft to allow snubbing of the plungers against the nuts. Cavities on the splitter jaw and plungers include relief holes to avoid crushing of the ends of the nuts and encourage an appropriate split. Cushions between the plungers and cam followers reduce impact on the pistachios.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,212, issued Jan. 27, 1998 to Lemos, indicates a process for splitting pistachios including a bin dumper, a sizer, moisturizers, blowers and splitting units arranged in seriatim. The blower removes excess water and particles from the nut surfaces after moisturizing and before splitting. The splitter includes a controlled surge bin having a brush gate associated with a sensor to control flow to a singulator. A vibrated singulator operates to release nuts to a splitting mechanism having opposed elements with cavities aligned to receive the ends of the nuts. Cradles retain the nuts in alignment for compression. Lateral vibration is induced in the cradles to ensure placement of the retained nuts.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,470, issued Apr. 30, 1996 to Lemos, puts forth a process for splitting pistachios including a bin dumper, a sizer, moisturizers, blowers and splitting units arranged in seriatim. The blower removes excess water and particles from the nut surfaces after moisturizing and before splitting. The splitter includes a controlled surge bin having a brush gate associated with a sensor to control flow to a singulator. A vibrated singulator operates to release nuts to a splitting mechanism having opposed elements with cavities aligned to receive the ends of the nuts. Cradles retain the nuts in alignment for compression. Lateral vibration is induced in the cradles to ensure placement of the retained nuts.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,918, issued Sep. 21, 1993 to Volk, Sr., concerns a pistachio huller provided wherein a means having projections pushes unhulled nuts between the surface of the means having projections and a surface of a means having channels, the channels being wider than the pistachio nuts to be hulled. The projections protrude into the channels and the hulls are ruptured and abraded through contact between the surface of the means with projections and the surface of the channels whereby the nuts are hulled.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,158, issued Dec. 31, 1991 to Tippett, illustrates an apparatus wherein a platform mounts an electric drive for selective use and cooperation with a manual crank to rotate a drum supporting shaft to rotate a drum in cooperation with a chute, wherein the chute includes a convex grinding surface to receive members therethrough to grind such members in cooperation with a multi-lobed drum. The drum lobes are optionally provided for selective replacement utilizing lobes of a multi-ribbed construction in cooperation with an initial and primary shell cracking rib.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 2,757,695, issued Aug. 7, 1956 to Valdes, depicts a machine for shelling edible nuts. The machine includes a cylinder adapted for rotation with a body of cracked nuts tumbled about therein and which is provided with a multiplicity of annular members which are spaced apart to provide spaces therebetween through which nut meats and shell fragments pass the predominant objects of the invention being to provide such a machine which includes means whereby the widths of the spaces between said adjacent pairs of said annular members may be regulated from the exterior of the machine when the machine is at rest or is in operation.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,115, issued May 15, 1984 to Volk, Sr., shows a pistachio huller is provided wherein a means having projections pushes unhulled nuts between the surface of the means having projections and a surface of a means having slots, the slots being narrower than the pistachio nuts to be hulled. The projections protrude into the slots and the hulls are ruptured and abraded through contact between the surface of the means with projection and the surface of the strips forming the means having slots whereby the nuts are hulled.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,931, issued Oct. 12, 1982 to Volk, Sr., claims a pistachio huller is provided wherein a means having projections pushes unhulled nuts between the surface of the means having projections and a surface of a means having slots, the slots being narrower than the pistachio nuts to be hulled. The projections protrude into the slots and the hulls are ruptured and abraded through contact between the surface of the means with projection and the surface of the strips forming the means having slots whereby the nuts are hulled.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,845, issued Jul. 19, 1994 to Bichel, describes an apparatus that comprises a cage (rotatable in one direction) formed by roller brushes (rotatable in the opposite direction) radially arranged about a axis to define a sloped chamber. A fender is located along one side of each roller brush. A stationary tube, closed at both ends and having a motor-driven rotatable auger therein, extends through the chamber. The tube has four openings (proceeding from the high to the low end of the chamber): a top (supply) opening; a bottom (feed) opening; a top (recovery) opening; and a bottom (discharge) opening. Unhulled nuts from the supply opening are fed through the feed opening by the auger and form a single layer against the chamber wall and advance through the sloped chamber. During cage and roller rotation, each nut is trapped between a fender and the bristles in the outgoing quadrant of the adjacent roller brush and the hull is removed. Fully-hulled nuts, when they reach the 3 o'clock to 1:30 o'clock position of the rotating cage, fall through the recovery opening into the tub and are expelled from the tube through the discharge opening by the auger.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,917, issued Mar. 5, 1991 to Burlock, discloses an apparatus for splitting closed pistachio nuts in a controlled manner such that the longitudinal sutures of the nuts will be cracked open. The apparatus includes a cylindrical housing with a mandrel mounted for rotation therein to provide an annulus into which nuts can be introduced. According to various features of the apparatus, the pistachio nuts are rotated, oriented and then split along their sutures in the annulus and subsequently discharged through an opening in the housing. There is also provided a continuous process of treating closed shell pistachio nuts which includes the step of removing the denser foreign particles from the closed shell nuts by flotation; and a soaking step so that the shells of the unopened pistachio nuts will be saturated with water to provide a degree of shell flexibility such that when pressure is applied to the suture of the shell to effect splitting, the shell will flex rather than crack. The shells are subsequently surface dried and then introduced to a splitting operation of the type carried out by the apparatus previously described.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,188, issued Dec. 25, 1990 to Burlock, indicates an apparatus for splitting closed pistachio nuts in a controlled manner such that the longitudinal sutures of the nuts will be cracked open. The apparatus includes a cylindrical housing with a mandrel mounted for rotation therein to provide an annulus into which nuts can be introduced. According to various features of the apparatus, the pistachio nuts are rotated, oriented and then split along their sutures in the annulus and subsequently discharged through an opening in the housing. There is also provided a continuous process of treating closed shell pistachio nuts which includes the step of removing the denser foreign particles from the closed shell nuts by flotation; and a soaking step so that the shells of the unopened pistachio nuts will be saturated with water to provide a degree of shell flexibility such that when pressure is applied to the suture of the shell to effect splitting, the shell will flex rather than crack. The shells are subsequently surface dried and then introduced to a splitting operation of the type carried out by the apparatus previously described.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,947, issued Oct. 9, 1990 to Burlock, puts forth an apparatus for splitting closed pistachio nuts in a controlled manner such that the longitudinal sutures of the nuts will be cracked open. The apparatus includes a cylindrical housing with a mandrel mounted for rotation therein to provide an annulus into which nuts can be introduced. According to various features of the apparatus, the pistachio nuts are rotated, oriented and then split along their sutures in the annulus and subsequently discharged through an opening in the housing. There is also provided a continuous process of treating closed shell pistachio nuts which includes the step of removing the denser foreign particles from the closed shell nuts by flotation; and a soaking step so that the shells of the unopened pistachio nuts will be saturated with water to provide a degree of shell flexibility such that when pressure is applied to the suture of the shell to effect splitting, the shell will flex rather than crack. The shells are subsequently surface dried and then introduced to a splitting operation of the type carried out by the apparatus previously described.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,140, issued Mar. 20, 1990 to Burlock, concerns an apparatus for splitting closed pistachio nuts in a controlled manner such that the longitudinal sutures of the nuts will be cracked open. The apparatus includes a cylindrical housing with a mandrel mounted for rotation therein to provide an annulus into which nuts can be introduced. According to various features of the apparatus, the pistachio nuts are rotated, oriented and then split along their sutures in the annulus and subsequently discharged through an opening in the housing. There is also provided a continuous process of treating closed shell pistachio nuts which includes the step of removing the denser foreign particles from the closed shell nuts by flotation; and a soaking step so that the shells of the unopened pistachio nuts will be saturated with water to provide a degree of shell flexibility such that when pressure is applied to the suture of the shell to effect splitting, the shell will flex rather than crack. The shells are subsequently surface dried and then introduced to a splitting operation of the type carried out by the apparatus previously described.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,323 issued Sep. 27, 1988 to Frasch, illustrates a process for shelling nuts, particularly pistachio nuts, includes the step of slowly and continuously compressing the nuts in the longitudinal direction and not increasing the compression at the moment when the shells break. This compression can preferably be effected in the longitudinal direction with the aid of two rotating disks arranged to be slightly inclined relative to each other.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,967, issued Jan. 15, 1980 to Nelson, is for a process for splitting the shells of pistachio nuts comprising soaking closed-shell pistachio nuts in an aqueous liquid, subjecting the wet-shelled nuts to mechanical pressure to compress them, releasing the said pressure, and substantially immediately subjecting the nuts having the mechanically compressed shells to an elevated temperature to effect splitting of at least the majority of the shells.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 2,302,227, issued Nov. 17, 1942 to Kasser, claims a method for cracking and shelling nuts which includes the steps of applying forces to accelerate the advancement of the nuts through a cracking space, relieving pressure immediately after cracking is completed, and removing loose shell pieces even before sifting or complete separation or further treatment of the meat and shell.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 1,194,318, issued Aug. 8, 1916 to Power, shows an improved nutcracker in which the nut meats may be separated from the shells with a minimum of crushing, producing large quantities in a relatively short period of time.
What is needed is a simple inexpensive yet effective means to assist in speeding up the time it takes to hull pistachio nuts.